When a clove isn’t a clove

Years ago I was a docent at a public garden where I usually led my required tours on a Sunday afternoon for those garden lovers who showed up at the meeting point. In order to properly prepare for my tours, I would visit the garden the week before so that I could see whatever was newly blooming and be sure to showcase it on the tour.

One week in early April, I was wandering around on a back roadway where the tours rarely went when I was delightfully struck by a strong, clove-like scent that I had never encountered before. While there were many plants along that roadway including lilacs, which should never be missed, also on account of their scent, I knew this was something particularly special. So I systematically started down both sides of the road sniffing everything that was flowering. Finally I approached a large bush that was about 5 feet high and 8 feet wide that had never attracted my attention before. It was pleasant enough before but there was nothing that made it memorable. Now, however, it was covered with small yellow flowers and bingo! I looked all around for the plant label and found that it was a Ribes odoratum, which I had never heard of before. It is commonly known as the Buffalo Currant but I have also discovered that it is aptly known also as the Clove Currant. The scientific name derives from the Danish word Ribs, meaning red currant, and odoratus, from the Latin meaning fragrant. Sometimes there is disagreement about the exact scientific nomenclature and this plant is also listed as Ribes aureum var. villosum. It  is native to the central United States, specifically Minnesota and South Dakota, south to Arkansas and Texas.

In order to get fruiting, a male and female plant is required. I have discovered meanwhile that there is an unfortunate downside to this Ribes. It can act as a host to pine blister rust — Cronartium ribicola — which is fatal to white pines — Pinus strobes — and apparently at one time there were serious restrictions on the planting of Ribes odoratum in the Northeast. However, now there is a available cultivar known as Crandall, which is very resistant or even immune to the blister rust.c

Fragrance contributes greatly to the joy of any garden. As I walk through gardens, I am always checking any unfamiliar flower for scent. The hyacinths are blooming now, to be followed by Lily-of-the-Valley, lilac and peonies roses later on. Those who grows herbs know, many plants have scented leaves. To enjoy those scents, all that is required is a light rubbing of those leaves between two fingers and the fragrance is briefly transferred to the fingers for sniffing. One of my favorite plants for leaf rubbing is the geranium. The wild type that blooms early in the spring, also known as cranesbill for the shape of the fruit,  has a citronella scent. There are similar geranium types known as Perlargoniums cultivated for other scents that include lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg and roses. They are related to geraniums and are part of the same botanical family, the Geraniaceae but occupy different genera (plural of genus).

A few weeks ago I stopped into the New York Botanical Garden’s annual orchid show, aptly named this year the Orchidelirium, which will be running through Sunday, April 17. As I opened the doors leading into the exhibition hall, I was overwhelmed with the strength of the flowers’ perfume. And even though the ability to smell something is quickly overpowered by fragrance, the bouquet seemed to last for the entire time I was there. As if that wasn’t pleasure enough, the gardenia was in bloom in the next room as you moved through the Conservatory.

Gardenia is a popular perfume fragrance but I completely fell in love with it when a friend sent a single flower that was meant to be floated in a bowl of water and which ended up perfuming the entire house.

So to return full circle to our Ribes odoratum. Whenever I took a tour through that garden during those critical weeks of early April, I would just take the group down that back lane and asked them to sniff. Everyone found the right bush!